Welding Manager

About the role

Engineered Products is a privately held company with over 50 years of industry experience, known for its customized storage solutions that streamline space utilization and reduce costs for businesses worldwide. The company fosters a culture of innovation and empowerment, where every team member contributes to its success by embodying core values such as building strong internal relationships, approaching challenges with optimism and a proactive mindset, and embracing continuous learning and collaboration.

Areas of responsibility

• Manage daily welding operations to achieve production schedules, quality standards, cost objectives, and delivery commitments.
• Direct, coach, and develop welding supervisors, team leads, welders, fitters, robotic welding operators, and other assigned employees.
• Establish work priorities, allocate labor, monitor production progress, and adjust staffing and resources based on operational demands.
• Ensure welding operations comply with approved Welding Procedure Specifications (WPSs), fabrication drawings, weld symbols, customer requirements, and applicable AWS standards.
• Oversee visual weld inspections and ensure weld discontinuities are evaluated according to applicable acceptance criteria.
• Maintain accountability for welder qualifications, continuity records, inspections, repairs, certifications, and required welding documentation.
• Serve as the designated CWI responsible for qualifying welders and providing the training necessary to meet applicable AWS guidelines, including welder testing, certification, qualification continuity, and ongoing technical development.
• Partner with Quality to manage weld-related nonconformances, repairs, rework, and recurring quality concerns.
• Lead root-cause investigations and corrective actions involving weld defects, rejected work, excessive rework, and process variation.
• Ensure welding equipment, consumables, shielding gases, fixtures, tooling, and materials are available, properly maintained, and effectively utilized.
• Own departmental performance results, including safety, productivity, first-time-through, rework, scrap, downtime, labor utilization, and schedule completion.
• Enforce OSHA requirements, company safety policies, PPE standards, and safe welding and material-handling practices.
• Lead pre-shift and departmental meetings to communicate production priorities, safety concerns, quality expectations, performance results, and required actions.
• Collaborate with Operations, Engineering, Quality, Scheduling, Maintenance, and Supply Chain to resolve production and technical challenges.
• Own the department’s SQDC tier-board process, ensuring accurate metrics, clearly assigned owners, timely countermeasures, and follow-through on corrective actions.
• Lead Lean Manufacturing initiatives to identify and eliminate the eight wastes (DOWNTIME), with particular focus on waiting, motion, defects, over-processing, and excess material usage.
• Drive workcell optimization and production flow through 5S, point-of-use materials and tooling, ergonomic positioning, pre-kitting, and flexible equipment layouts.
• Establish, document, and sustain standardized work for weld sequencing, machine parameters, consumable control, setup activities, and manual welding processes.
• Drive continuous improvement efforts to eliminate bottlenecks, reduce downtime and rework, improve quality, and increase operational efficiency.
• Establish, monitor, and improve welding performance metrics, including first-time-through, arc-on time, takt-time alignment, productivity, rework, scrap, downtime, safety, and schedule completion.
• Lead setup-reduction and process-improvement activities using SMED concepts, modular fixturing, visual controls, and documented best practices.
• Establish and enforce autonomous preventive-maintenance expectations, including routine equipment inspections, consumable replacement, nozzle cleaning, and ground-clamp checks.
• Ensure welding fume-extraction systems and other required engineering controls are properly used, inspected, maintained, and corrected when deficiencies are identified.
• Manage employee onboarding, cross-training, performance evaluations, attendance, coaching, corrective action, and workforce development in partnership with Human Resources.
• Identify and communicate significant safety, quality, staffing, equipment, and scheduling risks to plant leadership, along with recommended corrective actions and resource needs.

Skills and abilities

• Active American Welding Society Certified Welding Inspector (AWS CWI) certification required.
• Three or more years of welding, fabrication, inspection, or production leadership experience within a structural steel or heavy industrial environment.
• Previous experience leading welders, fitters, team leads, or skilled-trade employees preferred.
• Strong knowledge of structural steel fabrication and common welding processes, including GMAW, FCAW, and SMAW.
• Ability to interpret fabrication drawings, blueprints, weld symbols, specifications, work orders, and production schedules.
• Strong communication, coaching, problem-solving, and organizational skills.
• Ability to balance production requirements with safety, quality, and welding-code compliance.
• Experience with robotic or automated welding equipment preferred.
• Working knowledge of ERP systems, production reporting tools, and Microsoft Office applications.
• OSHA safety training or related safety credentials preferred.
• Demonstrated capability applying Lean Manufacturing principles, including 5S, standardized work, visual management, waste reduction, root-cause analysis, and continuous improvement.

Education and/or training

• Active American Welding Society Certified Welding Inspector (AWS CWI) certification required.

Work environment

This role is primarily based in a manufacturing facility and requires regular presence on the shop floor. Occasional extended hours or weekend support may be needed based on production demands.

Physical demands

• Frequent movement throughout a large industrial facility, including walking, standing, climbing stairs, and navigating around equipment and materials.
• Occasional bending, reaching, or lifting objects up to 25 pounds.
• Good vision, hearing, manual dexterity, and overall physical stamina are necessary to effectively observe operations and ensure a safe and efficient working environment.